Don’t we all know someone who is struggling with some form of mental illness or mental health challenge?
Colorado Community Media has launched a series of articles and forums, entitled “Time to Talk,” on the state of mental health, specifically in Douglas County, but applying to all of us, to discuss the need to bring the issue of mental illness into everyday conversation.
Need help, …

Postpartum Support International — Call 1-800-944-4773, press #1 for Spanish or #2 for English, or text 503-894-9453. The organization has a Colorado chapter that provides local resources for mothers. Mary Schroeter, coordinator for the Littleton area, can be reached at 303-883-7271. Laurel Hicks is coordinator for the greater Denver area and can be reached by phone or text at 303-974-8295. The group's website is at http://www.postpartum.net/

Healthy Expectations Perinatal Mental Health Program — Call 303-864-5252 or email healthyexpectations@childrenscolorado.org. For mothers in the perinatal period, the program at Children’s Hospital Colorado offers medical and psychological evaluations, couples and individual counseling, and support groups. Some services, including a moms support group called MAMAS Connect, are offered at the Highlands Ranch campus, 1811 Plaza Drive.

You Are Not Alone Mom 2 Mom (YANAM2M) — Call 303-229-3678 or email nikki@yanam2m.org. The free support group for moms meets weekly at locations in Highlands Ranch. To view a calendar, visit www.yanam2m.org/calendar.

AllHealth Network — Call 303-730-8858. South metro Denver’s community health center offers behavioral inpatient and outpatient services as well as group and individual or family counseling. For a list of locations, visit www.allhealthnetwork.org/about-us/contact-us-locations.

Colorado Crisis Services — Call 844-493-8255 or text ”TALK” to 38255. You will be connected to a crisis-trained counselor who will provide immediate and confidential support. For in-person support, visit a walk-in location at 6509 S. Santa Fe Drive in Littleton.

Check out a Time to Talk community conversation about mental health and youth: Andrew Romanoff, CEO of Mental Health Colorado, talked about the importance of early intervention. Kristen Torres, a CSU sophomore and Douglas County graduate, and Kirstie June, a senior at Chaparral High School, shared their personal mental health struggles and how they've overcome them. You can watch video of the forum here.

Hosted by Colorado Community Media on April 26 at Lone Tree Library in partnership with Douglas County Libraries and the Douglas County Mental Health Initiative.

Award-winning reporter Alex DeWind, 25, reports primarily on Highlands Ranch and the Douglas County School District, but has focused much of her time since November reporting on the state of mental health in Douglas County. A native of Basalt, a small mountain town outside of Aspen, she graduated from University of Colorado-Boulder in May 2015 and joined Colorado Community Media that fall. Reporting the stories in this segment — being privileged to listen to the very personal stories people have shared — has been an emotional journey, DeWind said. “These tragedies forever change the lives of everyone left behind,” she said. “People need to know that they are loved, cared for and that they matter in this world. There are so many things that make life worth living.”

Jessica Gibbs, 25, began for Colorado Community Media in August 2016, and has already earned statewide awards for her writing. Originally from DeWitt, a small town in southeast Nebraska, she graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and covers Douglas County, Castle Rock and nearby communities.

“As officials on the forefront of the issue have said, there is no perfect answer for improving the mental health system or law enforcement’s role in policing the mentally ill,” Gibbs said. “Let’s keep asking the tough questions until those answers can be found, so those with mental illness have the resources they need and the public rests assured the system is working at its best.”

Nick Puckett, 22, began covering Parker and Lone Tree in May, after his graduation from the University of Montana, where he earned a journalism degree.He spent the past couple of months reporting on how and why businesses are responding to the challenge of mental illness in the workplace.“The whole experience was pretty eye-opening,” said Puckett, who grew up in Castle Rock. “I learned mental health can look so different from person to person. I was impressed with the creative ways different businesses went about supporting mental health, but also realized there’s still so far to go.”

There is one problem in society today that knows no boundaries, affecting rich and poor, conservative and liberal, young and old, all alike. It doesn't discriminate based on ethnicity or nationality or any other method by which we usually divide ourselves.

We all can suffer from mental illness. In fact, one in five of us will experience a mental health issue in our lifetime.

But for such a widespread problem, there is a strange silence that accompanies the problem. It isn't talked about, or if it is, only in hushed tones, or laughed off as a punchline to a joke.

Likewise, too often those actively searching for mental health medical care often find their calls for help met with silence too — a lack of funding, or insurance support, or adequate laws to blame.

So it's time to talk about it, and really look at mental health in our communities. What's working? What's not? What can all of us do to make things better?

When a person in a mental health crisis is an imminent danger to himself, herself or others, or is gravely disabled by a mental illness, mental health and law enforcement professionals may place them …

Jeff Santelli, a retired Douglas County Sheriff’s Office deputy who now works as a CIT trainer, suggested that CIT should be a specialized presence in law enforcement, likening it to SWAT teams.
Just like SWAT officers, CIT officers require a specific skillset, Santelli said.
“It’s actually a very similar analogy to CIT,” he said. “It’s a specialized training of communication and not everybody is the best communicator.”

Law enforcement and mental health experts point to a culture shift in the approach to mental health treatment in the 1960s for the drastic rise in inmates with mental illness. In 1963, President John …

Supported by the Douglas County Commissioners, in response to several tragic mental health related incidents, the Douglas County Mental Health Initiative has worked to unite community partners to address unmet mental health needs, connect people to mental health services and prevent those in need from falling through the cracks of the mental health system.

The goal of the Let’s Talk Colorado media campaign is to initiate an inclusive conversation. All Coloradans benefit when we learn to discuss our mental health, and those of us who need treatment are more likely to seek it when we all agree that mental health is everyone’s responsibility.

The Douglas County Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition was established in March of 2016 as a component of the Douglas County Mental Health Initiative. The coalition is comprised of numerous agencies in Douglas County that have a stake in youth substance abuse prevention or treatment.

The Coalition is built around the community and meant to provide a cross-sectional representation of community members. The goal of the coalition is to reduce drug and alcohol use among the youth of the county.

Mental Health Colorado is the state’s leading advocate for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health and substance use disorders. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and an affiliate of Mental Health America.